Executive summary: Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi in 2013 was considering joining in a lawsuit against Trump University. Shortly thereafter, a check for $25,000 was sent to Bondi’s campaign political action committee electioneering communications organization “And Justice For All” by the Trump Foundation [EDIT: technically, this is an Electioneering Communications Organization {ECO}, not a PAC; it can coordinate with the candidate, but has a more limited scope and cannot operate at certain times during the election cycle. It is definitely not a Super PAC.]. AG Bondi (who has since endorsed Trump) ended up not joining in on the Trump University lawsuit. So far, so bad: but here’s the wrinkle: the left-wing government transparency group CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington) today noted that the Trump Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and is thus not permitted to make campaign contributions*. Nobody noticed at the time because while the Trump Foundation reported the contribution properly on Florida campaign finance disclosure forms, it reported it to the IRS as a contribution to “Justice For All,” which is a non-political, pro-life group out of Kansas. Justice for All has confirmed that they never got that money; CREW has now lodged a formal complaint with the IRS.
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Whether or not Donald Trump survives this one is, alas, open to debate: after all, the man routinely survives worse. But it really doesn’t look good for AG Pam Bondi. I mean, why did her PAC ECO take a campaign contribution from a 501(c)(3) nonprofit? Did they figure that it wouldn’t get noticed? – Although, to be fair: if Trump hadn’t run for President, it might not have…
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- Discussion
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